I still remember my first time: wind blaring through my ears, butterflies in my chest which eventually spread to my fingertips, and fear. But in this moment of anxiety, there was a still. Looking down, I saw the California coast line and the sun ebbing to my left. From that vantage point, I found myself.
I believe in flying.
Not in the literal sense of being in the air, because I’ve learned to hate being on a plane. Planes are ironically a symbol of captivity. You can spend hours on edge cramped between two strangers breathing recycled air which is entirely the opposite of flying. A closer example is skydiving. In the literal sense that being thousands of feet in the air with nothing on or around you but a parachute is the most liberating feeling.
One of two things can happen, your parachute fails to open and you fall to your demise, or you live more than you ever have in a matter of one minute. Because that’s all it takes; one minute to find out what kind of person you are or one minute to find out that you’re not a person at all.
In the metaphorical sense that we all have the ability to fly, then I am the embodiment of a bird. While others choose to stay grounded, I release myself from earthly tethers. I give myself a choice between flying above everybody else, but not in the sense that I am above everybody else, or staying grounded like everybody else. But it is in my nature to stray away from the norm, to recognize difference in myself and for others to find difference in me. I guess a part of flying, in the metaphorical sense, is recognizing that many either choose not or are unable to fly alongside me, or to fly at all.
So what is the metaphorical flying? It’s the freedom to not explain and knowing that the next day will not be the adopted and mediocre lifestyle that many have chosen. Instead, my body follows my minds will which may seem like the ordinary, but it is a stark contrast to the routine. The routine has become the majority’s norm. Nothing exceptional happens by choice. Nothing will be remembered. But like a bird, I am not exempt from certain routines, but also like a bird, it is in my free will to soar. To see things and do things that would be exceptional in ordinary standards. And that is my credo.
I believe in flying in the sense that flying is exceptional. It will not be forgotten. It is who I am.